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SKETCH OF THE LIFE 



OF 




^W/SHflW 



JOHN M°LEAJS\ OF OHIO. 



uno h ' W-^ton Correspondent of the Boston "Atlas," have taken 

p :^i e r mT r in this forra> as aa act due to the -^ - *- ° f *- 

pure ana distinguished citizen.] 
Washington city, May, 184G. 






Washington, May 20th, 1 846. 
As a relief to the dry labor of politics, an occasional sketch of some of 
our distinguished men will, 1 trust, prove acceptable to the public. There 
IS no subject, upon which the people of a free Government should be better 
:ened, than the character, history, and qualities of those who direct 
lmimster the laws, and impart tone to popular opinion ; which 
justification for this departure from accustomed duties 
»ted to the « National Portrait Gallery" for many of the most 
which illustrate this hasty and imperfect sketch of one, 
pubhc and private virtues, distinguished abilities, untar- 
n, profound professional learning, and long and valuable 
Ury, furnish materials for some American Plutarch to 
' posterity may justly cherish; and whose example in 
official station and social life, as a statesman, jurist, and 
11 parties and all sects may be proud to emulate, 
r, honorable in proportion as it has been difficult, of 
be kept under, from poverty and neglect up to eminence, 
sant to every honest mind— most instructive to every in- 
V a history of individual self-elevation is especially 
V B every citizen of a Republic . If he be high , it may 

Aa land of diffused intelligence and freedom, fortune 
Bist vigor of capacity and strength of purpose. If he 




fa 



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be low, he can draw from the career of such a man as John McLean, of 
Ohio, confidence in himself, or hope for his boys; if he too, or they, have 
in them the spirit and the worth to emerge from obscurity and vanquish every 
original disadvantage. Merely as such a lesson to the proud , that they should 
be moderate; and to the humble, that they should never despond, we are 
about to relate, in a manner entirely brief and unadorned, the life of this 
excellent citizen. No man (it has long since been said) can be pronounced 
happy, until he is no more. Without waiting, however, for further good 
or ill, it is no venture to say, that he who, from such adverse beginnings, 
has shaped himself out by methods so blameless, a success and a reputation 
so enviable, has little to hope or to fear from the future chances of existence. 
They cannot rob him of ability, integrity, or of the past. Whatever else 
betide, he has lived and he has acted well ; he has been an official ex- 
ample and a judicial light; he has merited the esteem of times when few 
deserve well of any thing but party; and has won, and will keep, a high and 
a lasting place in the affection's of- his countrymen. 

John McLean, the son of a poor but honest and industrious Irishman 
who had migrated to this country just before the war of independence, was 
born on the 11th March, 1785, on a little farm in Morris county, New Jer- 
sey. The narrow circumstances of the family permitted him, however, 
to remain an inhabitant of the brave military State to which he owes his 
birth, scarcely long enough to have fixed on it any of his childish recollec- 
tions, or any thing more distinct than that general sentiment towards th 
natal soil , which warms every honest bosom. When he was only four ye 
old, some time in the year ITS'.), his father was led to seek to better his co; 
dition in a frontier home. Setting forth, therefore, in what was the fav< 
track of migration, and no doubt with that desolate, enough equipment 
cart and horse — a chair or two swung behind — annua put dangling bet \\ 
— a frying pan pendant at the side — a little bedding — a few household stuffs 
— some pieces of bacon, and certain curly-headed little ones to garnish the 
vehicle within — the usual (ravelling train of the mover, even down to this 
day— he made his way first of all to Morgantov. ,. in Virginia. There, 
whether experimentally, or to recruit by labor his means fur ;i burner march 
he took up his residence for about a year — just long enough to have quali- 
fied his sou, had he been of a voting age, to be a denizen of the ancient 
Dominion. Kentucky, however, Boon's newfound of the v. 

■ ■■!.■!,•,■_ • .■ ■., i , -..; ,\ Hi, i [ • . - !;,:,-, >,( its fertility — (a! 
told a good deal less truly of many a region hard KjjKrive at, and sad to in- 
habit. To Kentucky, then, after dwelling only some twelve months-^n. \ 




Virginia^ our wanderers took their way. By what track they proceeded — 
whether by that land-route which went along the valley of Virginia, and 
thence to Cumberland gap, or by the easier way of the Ohio — is not learnt; 
but, either mode of journeying had abundant difficulties to task the endu- 
rance of the bold pioneers of a day, when roads and corn-fields were few; 
when Indians were, and steamboats were not. At first, the father settled 
temporarily on Jessamine, near where now stands the town of Nicholasville. 
Here he remained some two years; then, during 1793, removed to the neigh- 
borhood of Mayslick. At this latter section he continued to reside until 
1797, when, evidently from these repeated changes of place, by no means 
yet well to do in the world, he once more migrated into the neighboring ter- 
ritory, then called the northwestern, and now the State of Ohio. There, 
however, he was able to acquire, in its state of nature, the farm now his 
son's, much of it destined to be stripped of its forest, and won to cultivation 
by the youth's own arm. At last, then, we have- him, a lad of twelve — 
hitherto the poor wayfarer through State after State, rather than the inhab- 
itant of any — fixed at that spot where he was to grow up to distinction. 

It does not seem that he had ever, up to this time, been sent to school ; 
and, indeed, that was a region and a day in which it could hardly be said, 
that " the school-master was abroad." If he was, the first elements that 
b^ej^hen taught were privation and toil; a rough, but solid old academy, 
much in fashion with people that could help going to it, but which 
many wise pupils. In it, we shall soap see that young McLean, 
imes the axe and the plough, took early his hard-handed degrees, 
^Bright scholar in the " clearing'' and among die corn-rows-. 
■fevever, the labors of the family had let some streaks and spots 
Hk) the deep and heavy woods about them; when the cabin 
^komfOrtable; when fields begun to spread out around it; 
Hock enough to supply the wants of the simplest life had 
Hj| the father, though by this time burthened with a rather 
^fcenced applying such little surplus as was left from their 
Khe giving his children a homely education. John was 
sent ; hood school, whenever work and weather would agree 

BWed for learning; and John, whose hands had already 
.shewn tli ^^Mknt.soon proved himself still apter of head. Much 

ber had John - for his age, and very little occasion, at his book, 

q he give the til ■mite him back again. In a word, he learnt at a 

g^eatpace; and with hi~B?y unusual proficiency grew what was still bet- 
ter the desire of know; 1 the will to obtain it, no matter at what cost 
$i tdjjfc bodily or menta' 




* 



His father, meantime, was still too straightened in his circumstances to 
afford him any thing better than the very limited tuition of the common 
school near him, got by snatches as the farm and the seasons permitted. 
Indifferent, however, as this make-shift schooling must generally be, the 
activity of the youth's own mind supplied all its interruptions and imper- a 

fections . 

In the fields, at his threshing floor, or guiding his team, or wielding the 
biting tool that levels the trees, his thoughts still pursued the subject of 
which he had got hold at school; and the necessary task of the day done, 
the voluntary one of the night began, for he became to himself that with- 
out which no one ever learns much — his own teacher — whenever he could 
get no more advanced one. Completing, in this way, at home whatever he 
had not been able to finish at school, he soon mastered all that could be 
taught within reach of his father's house; and at this point, had he been 
made of any but the best-stuff, he must have stopped, somewhere about his 
fourteenth year. 

Means to procure him at a distance that sort of education to which his 
own longings impelled the boy, his parents did not yet possess; but, u where 
there is a will there is a way," and the youngster soon made it for himself. 
His strong head had good limbs to it. Strung by familiarity with fatigue, 
and to both he joined a stout heart, fired with the idea of possible excel- 
lence, all the more grateful (o his thoughts, if he should owe it only to Ins 
exertions — a self-made man. To accomplish it there was but one^2«§ort 
— his arms (older scholars as has been seen than his noddle) must help the 
latter to the means of learning; he had worked hard for his father hitherto; 
he must now work for himself also, at all those spare times when hereto- 
fore he had been sent where this infection of knowledge fastened upon him. 
With his father's permission, then, he now began to clear land for the 
neighbors whenever work grew slack at home. In new settled countries, 
wages are always good; so that our learning-seeker an •umulated fast a fund 
for his board and tuition at a higher school. Month for month his axe 
must have won him enough for about, an equal time of instruction; for he 
seems to have Bet about this noble plan in his fourteenth vear, and by his 
sixteenth be had gained enough to maintain him -m-essively at the Rev. 
Matthew Wallace's and Mr. Stubbs', until he was eighteen. UnderUie 
care of these competent teachers he applied himself to a general course of 
the liberal studies, rind to the languages and mathematics in particular. In 
the two latter he made a very rapid progress — such, it is easy to see, as put 
him in a condition, when presently his funds were exhausted, to become 
again, in these more advanced subjects, his own teacher. 



By this time he had probably fixed his choice on the pursuit which he 
was in after-life so much to adorn, for we find him in his eighteenth year 
writing in the clerk's office of the county of Hamilton. To those unable 
to pursue, at the cost of procuring a lawyer's guidance, their preparation 
for the bar, this mechanical service — excellent to familiarize the novice with 
the ordinary forms of law — makes a frequent enough sort of apprenticeship; 
and the rather because, while the labor performed is instructive, it is also 
fairly compensated. Unaided as young McLean was by station or con- 
nexions, the little we know of fact renders it probable that his personal 
merits were already known and had raised up for him friends such as, great- 
ly to the honor of our country, early talent has so often found, no matter 
how forlorn in its situation. Seldom have they who had already risen 
failed to hold out a helping hand to the youthful struggles of such as Clay, 
or Webster, or McDuffie, or McLean. Some kindly influence of this sort, 
perhaps exerted by his late instructors, is betokened by the terms on which 
he appears to have been admitted into the clerk's office. It was stipulated on 
the one part, that he should remain there three years, and on the other, that 
a certain portion of each day should be his own for study. These hours 
were assiduously devoted to self-improvement, or, under the general direc- 
tion of a distinguished barrister,* to preparation for his intended profession. 
It. seems that, besides, to form himself betimes for public effort, he resort- 
kM^anotlier voluntary agent of improvement that became highly useful to 
H^associated himself in a debating society, the first which had been 
■p Cincinnati, and evidently not composed, as those theatres of 
lisputation and ill-taste too often are, of raw and vain youths only, 
Wkg maturer and cultivated men. That this must have been 
;lear from what is still said of it, that it produced a number of 
"terwards distinguished themselves in the public service. Cer- 
., whether saved by the presence in the body of better models 
Hgph usually contain , or secured by his own remarkable 
Hnent, he contracted none of the vices of style which are 
jpfiuch places. None of their loose declamation , their idealess 
fluency, i habits of high-sounding gabble. On the contrary, taking an 
active pai discussions, he appears greatly to have profited by them, 

not only in point of improvement, but of reputation- and finally came forth 



*Arthur St. Clair, son of the brave General who made that name so dear to the Northwest, 
and so memorable in its legends of: Indian vr ars. 



6 

from the training which they gave hiin like a wrestler from the ring 1 , with his 
manly strength mended into adroitness as formidable. 

It is evident that his learning, the promise of his personal character, must 
have commanded as much respect as his talents did expectation; for, in 
the spring of 1S07, just of his 22d year, and before yet he had been ad- 
mitted to the bar, his prospects had become good enough for him to form a 
marriage, as respectable in point of connexions, as amiable in the qualities 
of her* with whom it united him. 

In the fall of the same year, Mr. McLean, taking out his license to prac- 
tise law, established himself at Lebanon. There, succeeding at once, he 
rose within a few years to a lucrative practice, and almost as rapidly into 
the general confidence and regard which it has ever been his fortune to in- 
spire in all situations of life alike; for few ever joined more completely the 
qualities that enforce esteem with gentle manners and a popular spirit, such 
as befit the self-made man, the single author of all his own eminence — 
who, owing himself nothing to chance, and, on the other hand, with as 
little to resent against her gifts to others, views all men with a like eye, in 
the light of their personal merit only. 

We cannot, if we would, follow the steps of unsought popularity that 
gradually brought him into public life. We need hardly say what they 
were, after having said what he was; but it may be worth while, since the 
manners of that day are almost forgotten, to say what those steps wer^ffl&T 
They were no acts of the political trickster, no bargains of the pa^y huck- 
ster — packed conventions, with all their invisible machinery setlfce clock 
work, to go at the movers list . while the crowd sec nothing but xhe face, 
had nothing to do with his rise. It was no work of an intrigue — no shame- 
ful thing, begot in some dark corner of pretended democracy, and presently 
to be fathered upon the people, as if every fool or knave of politics, every 
public changeling or foundling must be their child . He had not quit honor 
and duty to run after public favor, for that had found him out without his 
looking for it. To be, rather than to seem, was still a fashion which the 
people lik'-d, and thought, more capable of doing them good in their affairs, 
than a base and shallow subserviency to their most, momentary fancies, or 
to the intimations of those in power, who issue orders and call them the 
"party." Yea, "the republican party. " Noi such was the republicanism 
of that day — the old, the Madismiian democracy — to which, from the first, 



• Rebecca, the daughter of Dr. Edwards, formerly of South Carolina. She died in 
an admirable wife, an exemplary Christian, and the mother'of many children. 






naturally consigned to it by all the circumstances of his life and character, 
Mr. McLean belonged. 

Elected to Congress, in October, 1812, by a very large majority over the 
entire vote of two competitors, he went in as a warm supporter of the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Madison, and of the policy of the war declared by the 
preceding Congress. Throughout the contest, he remained the firm advo- 
cate of all such patriotic sacrifices, and of all such vigorous measures, as 
were to bring 1 that war to an honorable and successful close. On the floor 
of the House of Representatives, then rendered, by the presence of John 
Randolph, of Mr. Stockton, of New Jersey, and others, the great battle-field 
of party opposition, he repeatedly lent die administration the aid of his 
vigorous but pursuasive eloquence, which never, in its own warm convic- 
tions, ceased to respect those of others; or forgot that, in the debates of free- 
men, it is as senseless as it is wrong, to resort to denunciation in order to 
co#ince those on whom reason has failed . 

We have said that he was elected in 1812. It was not, however, to the 
Congress then soon to hold its second session, but to that which was to suc- 
ceed it after the next 4th of March. This latter body was first assembled 
in extra session during the ensuing summer. Now, as declaring war is 
often an easier and a more popular task than that of finding means for car- 
rying it on, it had by this time come about, through certain mishaps to our 

jS^Qii the frontier, and through the exhaustion of the Treasury, conse- 
nt upon the failure of the Congress that voted the war to provide for its 

pences, that this second war Congress had much the worst part of the 
jjame to play. The one body had but rehearsed the war, the other was 
now to act it. 'Twas nearly the difference between a parade and a cam- 
paign. Taxes were now to be laid upon a people whose chief productions 
were suddenly cut off from all their usual markets — armies were to be re- 
cruited, more fit to command than to be raised up — vigor and efficiency to 
he given t( whole system of the public forces — confidence to be main- 
Hpc mind, already beginning to be disheartened. All these 
were duties whig the utmost legislative wisdom, firmness, and eloquence. 
Elder leade jtwere, and one especially, by his courage, his abilities, 

nimate all minds, the main support in council of all that 
.'rying hour, who admirably met and sustained the necessities of all that 
contest. Seconding, however, with like patriotism, if with experience yet 
inferior, their efforts, Mr. McLean lent the public cause a very able and 
valued support, whether in debate, or in the laborious details of business, 
for which his application, his sagacity, and his power of system qualified 



8 

him so remarkably. His various speeches of that time, we need scarcely 
to refer to; for if the principles of that day are so far forgotten that our 
modern "progressives" can claim them for their own, how can we expect 
mere speeches, though applauded and admired then, to be remembered? 
We shall, then, only mention two in particular, as connected with most 
praiseworthy measure? which he originated. At the extra session he intro- 
duced, supported, and carried, in a manner to add much to his reputation r 
the law then passed to indemnify individuals for property taken for the pub- 
lic service and lost. The difficulties made about paying for the wagons 
and other private property, put at the command of the Government by the 
public spirit of multitudes of the Ohio people, and destroyed in Gen. Har- 
rison's movements, or taken in Gen. Hull's surrender, showed the necessity 
of such an enactment. Mr. McLean urged that the conduct of these suf- 
ferers — their voluntary aid to the public service — their exposure of their per- 
sons, along with their property, gave them a claim, not only of the higtest 
merit and justice, but of the most imperative policy and expediency, at. 
a time when the Government had need, above all things, to encourage — 
nay, if possible, to reward — every instance of patriotism in its citizens. 

At the ensuing session, always with the same heed for the poor and suf- 
fering, he introduced a resolution, instructing a committee to inquire into 
the expediency of giving pensions to the widows of officers and soldiers 
who had fallen in the military service. Such provision was accor 
made by law. 

Besides important measures like these, he was, during this Congress, an> 
active and useful member of two leading committees; one, that-'of foreign 
relations, always important, but then of the highest importance, and his- 
presence on which shows how high he at once ranked; the other, the com- 
mittee on public lands. On both these branches of congressional service 
he distinguished himself much. 

During his first winter in Congress the. following fact occurred, to which, 
he is said to look back with peculiar pleasure. Perhaps it so affected him 
from the habitual kindness of his nature, and love of assisting whomever 
he saw wronged ; perhaps the fact, that his own father was an adopted citi- 
zen enlisted his especial sympathies; though, indeed, as the case was man- 
ifestly against the whole spirit of our laws, we need look no further fqr 
motives to a man always as scrupulously just as Judge McLean. A Mr, 
McKeon, of New York,* had been nominated by Mr. Madison to the 

* He was the father of the Hon. John MeKeun, kite M. C from that City. 








Senate for a captaincy or lieutenantcy in the army. Before that body his 
rejection had been procured on the ground of his being an Irishman. He 
was and never ceased to be a stranger to Mr. McLean, though they after- 
wards corresponded. As soon, however, as he heard of the cause of the 
rejection, he took up the matter of his own accord with the greatest zeal, 
brought it to the President's particular attention, remonstrated with many 
members, and at last, by dint of much effort, procured him to be renomi- 
nated and confirmed. Capt. McKeon was not only a man of great worth, 
but in due time proved himself an excellent officer; distinguished himself 
in arms; and finally rose during the war to the rank of major. 

Were we, after mentioning the party associations of Mr. McLean in 
Congress, to pass on without an exacter explanation, we might leave with 
many, who have not considered how different were the former from the 
present exactions of political creeds, the idea that he was a thorough- 
going party man; that the first thing that he did, when he had made 
up his mind as to the side with which he should best like to act, was to 
hand over his conscience to their keeping, and let them, according to the 
day's work, deal him back as much or as little as was wanted; that, in 
short, he was a politician of the entire or swinish school, or of the sink- 
or-swim sort. Far from it ! In the first place, that blessed kind of party 
is *i subsequent discovery in pure politics; secondly, therefore, none such 
{•agisted; and thirdly, if it had, he was not a man to give himself over 
to it^hpdy and soul; when among parties an honest one could be found 7 
pursuing the needful public good, with that he would have acted. Such 
a .party vi^as rallied under Mr. Madison, when Mr. McLean, first came 
into public life; and it he supported in all measures which he deliber- 
ately, approved. Certainly his feelings always inclined him to them; but 
if his judgment opposed them, they got not his voice. In a word, he 
was no indiscriminate supporter of even that honest administration; for the 
honestest government commits its errors, is misled by wrong influences, and 
tends to fall into a reign of persons. To check such a tendency, by the 
pidividual judgment and independence, is the business of a 
representative of the people; not to yield to it and strengthen the mischief, 
by associating himself in it. He was incapable of that sort of desertion of 
duty — incapable of advocating a thing merely because it was popular, or 
proposed by those who were popular; and of doing whatever the dominant 
party desired, merely because it was the dominant party. Accordingly, if 
the journals of that period will be searched for his votes, it will be found 
that they were uniformly feiven with a reference to principle mainly. He 



i 



10 

often in this firm pursuance of his own clear convictions differed from his 
friends in particular measures; but so highly were both his purposes and 
his sagacity estimated, that these occasional refusals to go with party, in- 
stead of alienating any from him, served only to increase the respect in 
which he was held in Congress, and to add to the confidence placed in him 
by his constituents. 

Thus, in the fall of 1815 he was again returned to Congress, by the same 
large vote; about the same time, though barely of age to be eligible to the 
U.S. Senate, he was strongly solicited to become a candidate for a seat in 
that body. He declined it, however, as then offering so good a field neither 
for usefulness nor distinction as the House. The former body has risen 
since; the latter fallen immeasurably. 

In 1816 his State desired to transfer his services to the bench of the Su- 
preme Court ; and as besides that to such public calls he has always held it 
a citizen's duty to yield, he had by this time found that the expenses of a 
Washington residence, and his absence from professional employment dur- 
ing half the year, left him hardly enough to make both ends of the year 
meet, he consented to the change. The confidence now reposed in him on 
all sides is abundantly signified by the fact that he was elected to that high 
judicial trust by an unanimous vote. 

The appointment was found, when he came to assume his new duties^ a"i£ 
admirable one; his mind and character alike fitted him for his new 
tions. The cast of the former was remarkable for clearness, exact n 
tience to investigate, and comprehensiveness to seize in its principles the 
most perplexed and difficult matter; that of the latter had been ever and in 
all things distinguished for' an unvarying love and practice of justice and 
duty. He continued to occupy this important, station for about six years, 
with a reputation and a popularity steadily increasing. With these, how- 
ever, grew another thing which , though it lias equal delights, is by no means 
equally exempt from inconveniences; his family became large, and the dif- 
ficulty of giving them such an education as he was determined they should 
have, serious; for his fortune had not yet by any means grown into one 
proportioned to his dignities. When, therefore, in 1^22, President Mon- 
roe (who had become acquainted with his fitness for the office 
services on the Congressional committee connected with it,) offered him the , 
place of Commissioner of the Land Office, Mr. McLean accepted it, as one 
not only putting him in possession of a better income, but in a situatioa 
where it could be much more advantageously employed for the benefit of 
his children. 

Here the very capacity for his duties which he fifolayed served to abridg 





11 

his continuance in them. A yet more important branch of the public ser- 
vice had fallen into inefficiency and ruin. A man fit to give its administra- 
tion a new vigor and method was wanting; and Mr. Monroe thought he 
had found in Mr. McLean just the person for the undertaking. In the sum- 
mer of 1S23, therefore, he offered him the appointment of Postmaster Gen- 
eral. That si! nation was then by no means an inviting one. Though not 
yet advanced, either as to rank or emoluments, into a department which 
gave its chief a seat in the cabinet, it bore the reproach without the honor 
of forming a part of the administration; so that its head, without a compen- 
sating dignity or power, shared the odium of measures in which he had no 
voice, and incurred the calumny of facts for which he was in no manner 
responsible. Its labors were severe; but, however useful, of that common 
place sort, the performance of which was thought incapable of winning for 
any man the praise of talents. Besides all this, its affairs were in confusion , 
its^nances embarrassed, and the public confidence in it almost ruined. 

The friends of Mr. McLean were alarmed at the idea of his taking the 
command of a ship that seemed so nearly foundering. They insisted that 
it was an office in which no man had gained reputation; that it was a dull, 
dreary toil, of details the most disagreeable, which no ingenuity could me- 
thodize, nor scarcely any perseverance master; and that, in short, he would 
wear out his health, and make a sacrifice of his public standing, if he un- 
Mfetook it. There are men, however, whom alarms and doubts like these 
cann7jftfnght<?n from that which they have conceived as a thing to be done. 
Mr. McVan was the child of difficulty and dreaded not that which had 
,-ursed him in all the qualities that led him on to honor and success. He 
■opted, therefore, the adventure, and on the 1st July, 1823, entered upon 
his new duties. 

How complete a revolution he speedily effected in the whole service we 

need scarce! ^fstop to tell. He lifted it, almost at once, into a completeness 

and viffor of organization such as it had never known before; and, while he 

■ the space over which it acted, and quickened its move- 

^m recovered its finances from their disorder, and rendered 

them higl: flourishing. Rarely has any one man done so much for a 

administration service Never, we believe, in so short a 

time . fc- 

By a quiet reform , executed as soon as ascertained to be needed, and 
with such a discreetness and justice as scarcely ever permitted a murmur, 
he reformed the entire b&Iy of the agents of the Department, and brought 
about a general efficiency and faithfulness . Noisy as men are usually made 




■ 






12 

in this land of ours by deprival of that which all affect to despise, it is as- 
tonishing- how few names he added to the usual vast roll of "injured patri- 
ots" who have lost or could not get a contract or an office. The whole se- 
cret is, that he never acted without fair cause, looked at nothing but the 
public service, and never did any thing that could be suspected of personal 
favor, or of a political motive. What a pity that nobody will try the same 
plan again ! 

Of course all this could only be done by supervising in person nearly all 
such changes. Mr. McLean maintained himself an exact control over all 
the general operations of his department, and superintended every readjust- 
ment of what was out of order. He directed the whole correspondence, 
attended personally to the making and altering of all contracts, and acted 
for himself in all appointments and removals of postmasters or charges against 
them. His intelligence, his spirit of system, his activity, his justice, and his 
care of the public interest diffused themselves, by an unwearied labor 
throughout the entire service. There is a marvellous efficiency in a chief's 
thoroughly doing his own duty, to animate all his subordinates to theirs. 

Going in under Mr. Monroe, (as we have said,) he was continued 
through all the next administration, and (as we shall presently see) into the 
earlier part of General Jackson's. During the first four years of this time 
he accomplished so much, and won not only such esteem for himself, but 
such popularity for the Department which he had taken up in so shatte: 
a condition, that, besides the notorious fact of the wide influence a 
pectation to which he at once rose, he drew to himself, and to whaH 
dune . some remarkable public testimonials, such as have seldom tmB 
by any officer of the Government in former years, and not at all in latter. 

In 1827, such was felt to be the benefit which the post office — lately so 
sickly a part of the public service — was now conferring on the commerce of 
the country and its business generally, that a proposition was brought into 
Congress, and adopted almost unanimously in both Houses, for raising the 
pay of the Postmaster Generalship to that of equality with that of the Sec- 
retaries of the other Departments. This act furnished the grounds upon 
which General Jackson afterwards constituted the Postmaster General a 
member of the President's Cabinet. 

Upon this occasion Randolph, of Roanoke, was one of the few who op- 
posed the measure. Even his esteem and commendation, so seldom be- 
stowed on any, could not be refused to Mr. McLean; he declared that he 
was perfectly willing to vote the new salary, if it, could be continued only 
while Mr. McLean held the office. In his spec oil last winter upon the new 







M 



13 

postage bill, Senator McDuffie, in yet more remarkable terms of praise, es- 
pecially as coming from a man of adverse politics — what Mr. McLean had 
effected in the Post Office, he said:* "The operation of this bill cannot, fail 
to have a most corrupting influence upon the Post Office Department, al- 
ready a most important political engine, and capable of producing momen- 
tous effects for good or for ill. Pass this bill, and you will increase its in- 
fluence and its power, and in ten years it will control the Government and 
the Presidency. 

"No purer man ever went into office than a former head of the Depart- 
ment, who now occupies a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court. He 
came out of the Post Office pure and unsullied, but with a reputation and 
a character which so endeared him to, and gave him an influence with, 
the army of Post Office contractors and postmasters, that it would have 
been dangerous for any man (o possess, who did not also possess his inflexi- 
ble integrity." When, two years after, General Jackson arrived in Wash- 
ington to take possession of the Presidency, and was occupied in selecting 
his cabinet, he sent for Judge McLean to ascertain (he said) whether or not 
he was willing to remain in Washington. The latter replied that, as the 
preliminary to any conversation on that subject, he desired to explain that, 
if the General had been led in any manner to believe that the patronage of 
the Post Office Department had been used to advance his election, he was 
entirely mistaken. He (Mr. McLean) wished him distinctly to understand 
le had done no such thing; and that, if he had pursued any such 
course, lie should consider himself as having forfeited all claims to the con- 
fidence of any honest man. General Jackson applauded his sentiments; 
declared 'they- were just his own; and, expressing for him the highest re- 
cbhjklence, begged that he would retain the Post Office, regret- 
ting, at the same time, that he could not offer him the Treasury. Mr. 
McLean was ftweady aware that the coming administration was forming it- 
ients and spirits that would not suit him, and respectfully 
signified his wish of retirement. The War and Navy Departments were 
Hfed him, but were both declined. In yet another invited 
literal Jackson endeavored, by the warmest expressions of 
ervices and person, to shake his decision, but in vain. 

iad by this time seen what influences and persons were to 



•It chanced that, when this very high panegyric was pronounced, Judge McLean was pre- 
sent in the privileged seats of the Hull. Taken completely by surprise, he was obliged to listen, 
with a confusion increased by tfre fact that all eyes were at once turned upon him. 



.1*% 



14 

gather about the President, and that a term of proscription was at hand; he 
perceived that the maxims, and the methods of equity and moderation by 
which he had always governed himself, would be no longer possible, and 
that, under such circumstances, political life would be by no means suited 
to his taste. Anxious , however, that his abilities and popularity should not be 
lost, Gen. Jackson finally offered him an eminent position, unconnected with 
politics, that of a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court; he accepted 
it, was immediately confirmed by the Senate, and has now held it for 
sixteen years, with a judicial integrity and ability which the Reports, the Bar, 
and the Bench, abundantly attest. Nor, though thus withdrawn from poli- 
tics, have they, always seeking what may captivate public favor, forgotten 
the strength of his name. Repeated movements to nominate him for the 
Presidency have been made, which, probably, needed only his participation 
in them to give success. The earliest of these that made any progress was 
in 1S31, and was about to be adopted by a party (the Anti-Masonic) then 
threatening to sweep every thing before them, but was declined by Judge 
McLean in a letter to their convention, in which he declared that, "if by a 
multiplicity of candidates, an election by the people should be prevented, 
he should consider it a national misfortune;" that, in such an agitated state 
of politics, he who was to conduct the Government successfully must pos- 
sess in advance the real confidence of a majority of the people. Yet, again, 
in 1835, nominations of him occurred in many quarters, and were met b 
him in the same manner. He did not desire the Presidency merely 
elevation; better be what he is than wear the most conspicuous dugp 
feeble Chief Magistrate, a poor purple thing of party or intriguejfl99B 
lute, as unde-erving of the sincere popular confidence, which wM 
enable him to effect anything for those good principles of mjB 
justice, and of public duty in and to all which he has ever loved, and the 
restoration of which, alone, could make any man's electron a good for the 
country. In obedience to the same firm principles o\ duty, Judge McLean 
respectfully declined, in lS41,the Secretaryship of "\\ ar, to which he had 
been, without his knowledge, nominated by Mr. Tyler, anfl unanimously 
confirmed by the Senate. Eminently, through all the circu - of his 

life, a Max of the People, Judge McLean has never had need to play 
tfoe public parasite and effect those sympathies with the people to which lie 
was born. These, the rectitude of his character and a wise experience, have 
only ripened into that conservative' spirit which looks on liberty itself as but 
liberal laws strictly enforced; accustomed long to Me one of tire high guar- 
dians of such, he trusts no other freedom than^^Re and moderation. 




15 



which have ever been the main traits of the man. A Republican in 
days when ultraism of all sorts had not yet usurped that loved name, 
in order only to pull down with it every thing really republican, he 
has ever been what he began — a Madisonian Whig. As such, he has 
always sustained the great Whig cause and measures — has supported a 
Revenue Tariff, shaped for the protection of Home Industry ; a well 
regulated system of Currency; and uniformly opposed the Sub-treasury, 
Proscription, the Spoils System of demagoguism in general, its measures 
and its morals. Of his attachment to these principles, the occasion when 
they were last invoked in a great public contest, gave one more proof. It 
is known to all that, in 1S44, there was serious danger that distraction would 
be produced in the Whig party, by an attempt to nominate him instead of 
Mr. Clay; and that he himself put an end to that danger, by nobly declar- 
ing, that no man merited so much of the country as that great Statesman. 
This is known to all; but, to many still better, how he looked on that man 
and that contest; that none felt a stronger solicitude for Mr. Clay than he - y 
that he viewed his election as inseparably connected with the highest inter- 
ests of the country; that he said his defeat would fill him with the gloomiest 
forebodings for the future ; that he especially hoped to see rise under that 
intrepid leader, an administration which would stake itself on a war with 
the Demagogues and against the " Spoils" system; and insisted that the 
ascendancy of the Whigs will never be permanent, until they shall revive the 
wral i?ifluences of the country; that so long as our elections shall be made, 
proscription, a mere struggle for office, we shall have nothing 
rnment of factions. These are the sentiments of an honest man, 
ich as the country needs, and whom none will have occasion to 
Kjbad and the corrupt. 

itikm. with a very numerous religious denomination was formed 
v in 1?l ^^Hfc ls soon as he entered life, and before he thought of politics. 
The sect of which he is a member, is among the most tolerant and 

liberal towards others of all the persuasions that exist ampngst us. How 
he himself s B its charitable spirit, might be somewhat judged by the 
temper which ^fcfficial and political conduct has always manifested ; but, 
shown in a single fact, that while Postmaster General, he 
was electe of the Columbian College of this District ; and. that 

iofil is Baptist Seminary he discharged the duties of that trust as zealously 
a^Hpariously as if it had been the most cherished institution of his own 
Arch. But surely a man may, in his own way, and leaving every body 
else to theirs, like Judge' McLean, serve God, and be none the less fit to 
serve his countrv. VERITAS. 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRrqc 



